Tag Archive | Metro Goldwyn Mayer
Not Harlow. Mary Dees, the actress who filmed Jean Harlow’s unfinished scenes in Saratoga.
“Backstage at the Shubert Theatre, the stage manager hesitates to pop his head into in the star dressing room. He’s not sure he can take looking at the young woman one more time. That’s not something he’s ever thought about a gorgeous woman before. His motto – You can look at a buffet all you […]
Judy Garland – the tragic arc of the child star.
Like any starry-eyed teenager, the young singer was ready to experience the glamorous world of the movie star. Instead, Garland was sent to MGM school where she met Mickey Rooney and the other kid talents of the time, most of whom were true beauties, like Ava Gardner and Elizabeth Taylor. She was not in their […]
I thought I heard a whisper…
The ritual of the cake made it clear there was certainly affection and understanding between them. But had that come with time? Was it a place of comfort after many disappointments and disagreements? I will never know. This photo of my grandmother Mitzi is undeniably stunning. I may be biased, but it ticks every box […]
Charles Bickford – acquitted of attempted murder at nine, nearly killed by a lion and three times Oscar nominee
“It’s appropriate that I should have come in on the wings of a blizzard. I’ve been blowing up a storm ever since.” Charlie Bickford Although I don’t know what year this photo of actor Charles Bickford was taken in, I am fairly sure it is before 1935 when he was still contracted to MGM and […]
A Room So Powerful…
This is one of the oddest photos in the collection. Clearly, Louis B Mayer is chairing a meeting, but which one? And who is the amazing mustachioed man? The boardroom table, with its incredibly polished surface, mirrors these men of power. In fact, through some freak of lighting, the table reflects them in an even […]
Louis B Mayer: The Legend’s Shadow
For most of my life the legend of my uncle Louis B Mayer loomed large – sometimes tricky shadow, sometimes outright inspiration. For the last 12 months or so I have had a Google alert for Louis B Mayer and even though he has been dead for 50 years – wow – the chatter, the […]
Jean “Baby” Harlow. Dead at 26.
Mitzi Cummings at home with Jean Harlow, 1934. She would be dead three years later at just 26 from renal failure. “It doesn’t matter what degree of talent she possesses … nobody ever starved possessing what she’s got.” Variety Magazine‘s review of Jean Harlow in the 1930′s Howard Hughes’ film Hell’s Angels. This is a […]
Mitzi with Judy Garland… and wow, that couch!
In celebration of what would be Judy Garland’s 90th birthday: My grandmother Mitzi Cummings with Judy Garland, date unknown but probably well before The Wizard of Oz. It’s possible she is wearing her own clothes and is not in costume, but if you recognize the outfit she is wearing as wardrobe for one of her […]
What I Will Look Like in 40 Years
“She was driven, passionate and unstoppable. It is uncanny to me how alike she and LB were in sheer determination…” It dawned on me recently as I looked at photos of my grandmother Mitzi and my great-grandmother Ida Mayer Cummings that I was looking at me in a few decades. The resemblances are uncanny in […]
